The Priests of Night

By Tyler Earp

Things have taken a rather dark turn for Charley. Literally. He will now have to find his bearings in a much darker, and much more primitive world. One that is controlled by the fanatical worshipers of the darkness, The Priests of Night. That isn't all, though.

With Riley torn-up about is brother's death, Charley may have lost his greatest ally in this second chronicle. Can they come together in time to save not only themselves from a dark fate, but also the crumbling world of Underdeep?

Lloyd is a top member of the Silent Brotherhood, and he's only fourteen! When one of his missions goes sour, he's captured by Rafe. Things get even worse when Rafe reveals that he is Charley's long-lost brother, and that the two of them are connected by destiny. Can Lloyd overcome his past, or will he just serve as another pawn?

Nina must come to terms with all of her friends disappearing, and with her burgeoning powers. All while dealing with Victor, her long-time bully! The two of them have been sent off to train in a secret village of the remnants of the Children, but can they learn fast enough to help stop the growing darkness?

All of these questions, and more, will be answered in this second Undermire Chronicle!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tyler Earp
• Release date: Oct 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370741267

Tyler Earp

Tyler Earp is an avid reader with a big imagination and even bigger dreams. His biggest dream was to write a book. Well, he's accomplished that. Now his biggest dream is to influence some young reader to love reading as much as he does. Another reason Tyler likes to write is that he gets to talk in the third-person, and not get called insane for it.Some of his biggest influences come from writers like J.K. Rowling, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. He enjoys chess, taking long walks and playing video games. He grew up during the Harry Potter boom and dares you to challenge him on anything Potter!Fun facts:He has read the Webster's Dictionary for the fun of it.He has a small cat he calls Mouse JR.His favorite weird food combination is chocolate milk and pretzels.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by Tyler Earp

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Material included from The Flames of Bane is subject to change, including, but not limited to, all manuscript passages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Acknowledgment

To the teacher, in the truest sense of the word, that taught me an apple is never just an apple.

Thank you for teaching me to see beyond the

obvious, and for being my harshest critic in school.

To Mrs. Edington

Table of Contents

Copyright Page

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Epilogue

Connect With Me

Notes

Book Three

Chapter One

Look-A-Like

"A doppelganger does not in fact exist, but a twin does, and that is almost as chilling to think about."

- Traveling Bard

His youthful face drew a lot of looks from the hard-faced men in the bar. They were a hard group of people, and the bar was like them. Old, worn, and a little leaky. But underneath that was a good smell of cooking bread and crackling flames to warm the early spring night.

His almost dead eyes seemed to stare through everyone and everything. The man he had received a mark on sat in a back corner, playing a dice game.

His spirited voice and happy eyes showed that he had no idea of what was to come later that night. For Lloyd never failed to take his mark. Even though he was only fourteen he had taken hundreds of men to the Silent Lands– women for that matter, as well.

He was uncaring of their gender, age, nationality, creed or species. All would fall to his blades, and then he would move on to the next one.

To Lloyd, it was simply business. Nothing more, nothing less. Or that was what he told himself at least. No, this isn’t the time to have doubts. Ramas would never send you if it weren’t necessary. Kill your feelings...

Lloyd did not have to wait much longer for the man to rise from his place at the table and head for the privies nearby. He rose with him and followed silently.

Many had not even realized that the boy, who looked so kind, had two elegantly curved knives at his waist, or the other blades he hid beneath his clothes.

The man simply nodded to him as he relieved his bladder, a dark green cape hanging down his shoulders. Lloyd made no attempt to return the greetings.

Since he had been a small child it had been pounded into his head that he much never see his next victim as anything other than that. A victim. They meant nothing to him.

The man turned back to his business, and Lloyd almost released his blades at that moment, but he knew that his master would not be pleased to know that he would be giving himself away in the process.

He still had three more marks before the end of the week in Morness. Lloyd couldn't afford for anyone to be able to link him to the marks.

Why am I so nervous? He doesn’t mean anything to me.

Another smaller voice said at the back of his mind, What about your soul?

Lloyd did his best to ignore it.

Are you just going to stand there, staring at me, or are you going to use the privy? No offense, my type does not tend toward the young, nor male, the man said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

Sorry, sir, he said, before scuttling to the neighboring stall and pretended to go himself as the man left, swaying a little in his intoxication.

Carelessness. The worst enemy of the assassin. It will take your life faster than any blade ever could, Lloyd told himself, thinking back on the lessons of always knowing his surroundings and what was happening in it.

Regaining his composure, he returned to the main room and saw that the man was gone. Lloyd rushed to the entrance, looking at both ends of the street, and caught sight of the cape whipping around the corner.

Lloyd took off at a near run, pushing through several small groups of late-night revelers. None of them gave him a second glance.

He figured me out! How could I make a slip like that? I’ve never lost my cool like that.

Everyone in the city was too busy celebrating the recent defeats for the young upstart king, Castor of Drunnel. Coming to a stop, he looked around the corner and saw that the young man had sped up considerably.

Cursing himself over his lapse judgment, Lloyd grabbed several stones jutting out of the side of the building and shimmied up the wall, imbuing his arms and legs with magic for strength.

The few times he caught sight of the man's face, Lloyd saw that he was very wary of his surroundings, checking every deep shadow before moving on.

Lloyd smirked. If I wanted to hide in the shadows you would never even know I was there. He still had one more trick that not even his master had been able to duplicate.

Lloyd had the ability to hide in the shadows so thoroughly that not even the most well-trained dog could catch his scent. It was as if he actually didn't exist while within the embrace of the shadows.

Lloyd slowed as the man stopped at a building. He looked around, eyes leering at shadows, before knocking in a relatively complex pattern.

He laid on top of the building for several hours, so the twin moons could continue past their zenith to shed less light on his next maneuver. He stood, shaking the numbness from his legs and arms in the process, and then backed up to the opposite side of the building.

With one deep breath, he started forward at a run and threw himself from the roof across the street before he could give it another thought.

He put his arms out before him, elbows bent to absorb his weight and caught the edge of the roof. Pulling himself up with ease, he walked to a small hole in the roof with a ladder protruding from the room below. Something that was required on the hot summer nights so people could sleep on their roofs.

Lloyd crept forward and looked down into the dark room, his eyes quickly adjusting. Catching a quick movement out of the corner of his eye, he tried to pull his head out of the hole, but was caught under the arm and wrenched into the room, collapsing onto his back.

The lanterns were uncovered, and now Lloyd knew for sure that he had been set up. A tall man with inky hair and sharp eyes stood over his prone body. Don't even think about making a break for it. You won't make it five feet.

An even larger man with a mop of red hair and a beard starting to go gray snorted. I doubt he'd get even that far, Rafe.

Don't be fooled, Hans. He's a personal apprentice of Ramas, Rafe replied. I’ve been following him for the last week.

Impossible, Lloyd stuttered. I would have seen you.

Rafe laughed. Boy, I’ve been less than a few feet from you on more than a dozen occasions and you never suspected a thing.

Another man stepped forward, and Lloyd recognized his mark with his green cape and light blond hair. That's all well and good, but what I want to know is why I would have had a mark put on me?

The man paused, tapping his foot, and then said, Actually– I think I want to know the answer to a question I'm sure all of us are thinking. Why does he look exactly like Charley?

* * *

Victor sat back, slumped in his chair, ignoring everything that the teacher was saying. His adoptive father was the owner of one of the largest car dealerships in the state.

Everyone in the family expected him to take it over, especially his father. They didn't expect him to anything else, why should he care about something that he didn't even need?

Victor? Victor– are you even listening?

He looked up at the teacher and groaned. I'm never called on, why now? Mrs. Novak knew he wouldn't answer the question.

Who cared if he even knew the difference between a gerund and a participial phrase? No one would care when he owned the dealerships. What's up, teach.

Shaking her head. Mrs. Novak, Mister Cain. The principal would like to see you.

His stomach dropped as he stood to leave the room, though he kept his face blank as always. There were only a few reasons the principal would be calling him into his office: someone in his family had died or been hurt, he was in trouble, or he'd done something good.

He snorted at the last one before remembering the other two options and steeled himself as he walked to the office. The secretary looked up at him and smiled. Victor Cain? The principal is expecting you.

He walked through the door and stopped. An elder man sat in the principal's chair, with a small, graying goatee, a well-tailored suit, and piercing blue eyes that twinkled with an unknown humor, as if he was in on an unknown joke that no one else knew. But there was something Victor certainly knew.

This man was not his principal.

The old man motioned for him to sit. Come now, Victor. We have much to discuss and so little time in which to do so.

Victor didn't move, though he was tempted to run back through the door. Oddly enough, he felt safe in the presence of this man, as if he knew the man would never attempt to harm him. Who are you? he finally got out.

I'm Bramly Mordecai, First Mage of Undermire. The Last Defender of The Veil. But most importantly, I'm here to tell you about your people– your family.

Uh– there isn't really much you can tell me that I don't already know. My dad's a salesman, my mom's a housewife, and my snotty little sister is a third grader who thinks she owns the planet.

"Your real family. The family you were born to. I can tell you everything. The things they did. The inheritance you were born to. The things you can do. You've noticed the changes in yourself– haven't you?"

Victor felt his stomach drop again. Like a bath of ice being dumped on him, he sat completely still, hooked by every word this man said.

How does he know about me?

He looked Bramly straight in the eye, I have no idea what you're talking about. He stood up, but what Bramly said next froze him once more.

So you're going to deny your magic? That you can't block out all sound, all too easily. So well that you hear nothing if you wish it? That is only the most base use of that power. A mere trick. That is the least of what could be taught to you if you wished it.

How do you-

Know that? Bramly smiled. The same way I know about your family. Your past. Do you want to know? If I tell you, things can never return to the way they were again.

Victor slumped back into the chair and rested his chin on his chest. Here it was. His lifelong wish to know who he was.

The one thing that his family had never been able to tell him, always deflecting his questions by saying that they were his family now. But why was he so hesitant?

Victor finally looked up at Bramly. Tell me– Tell me everything.

Masters Appear

Nothing is more important than the relationship between master and apprentice. It is what binds us together.

- The First Children

Nina stared at the small green building with a white-washed picket fence surrounding it. A small, black cat crept through the yard and jumped up onto one of the posts and stared at her, eyes narrowed and a wrinkle to its nose.

She reached out to pet it, but it leaned back, moving away from her hand. Wow, girl. You've got the stench of dog all over you. The others would never stop making fun of me. I just got them to shut up about me learning human speech.

You can－ talk?

"And so can you, but you don't see me questioning you. Or are you asking about how I can talk, rather than how I can talk? Simple enough, I'm a domesticate Cait."

Nina shook her head. Rafe said it wasn't possible for one to be－ and aren't you supposed to be bigger anyway?

The Cait's nose twitched. Well, what would a dog know? Barghest, always thinking they're so superior. It's not that we can't, we just don’t. Normally. Name’s Jesper.

No offense, but do you know where someone named Bramly is?

Jesper's eyes widened, and the black of his eyes turned into slits. Depends on who is asking.

My name is Nina, Nina Dew.

"Well, why didn't you start with that? Master Mordecai is waiting for you inside. I swear, humans are all air-headed－ and they are the top of the food chain? Nothing like a cat at all. Utterly ridiculous."

Did you say Mordecai?

Jesper looked up at her and must have noted her fear. Don't worry your pretty little head. He is nothing like his nasty brother. I'm an animal－ we can sense things.

As if that settled the matter, Jesper leaped down from the post and sauntered away and only stopped once he reached the door to the small house and turned back to her. Well, are you coming, or not? I certainly have all day, but do you?

They were greeted by an elderly man at the door. You must forgive Jesper. He is not used to hosting guests, and it irks him to have his territory invaded by one he is not familiar with.

The old man with cheery eyes leaned in and whispered, In fact, I think he has taken quite a shine to you.

Jesper, who was now laying in front of the hearth, twitched his tail their way. I can hear you, Bramly. And in neither this world, nor any other, would I 'take a shine' to a human－ filthy creatures, the lot of them.

Bramly turned back to her, and the light went out of his eyes, and Nina was reminded of Renwick. I'm sorry for my brother's actions. I－ though he could still be trusted. I was obviously wrong. With Charley－

Nina shook her head, red hair whipping around. Don't! Don't talk about Charley or any of them!

A familiar, weasely voice sounded from behind her. Are you going to let him finish, or are you going to interrupt him?

Nina turned in her chair as fast as she could and couldn't believe it. Standing there was Victor. You? But how? How are you－

Here? I'm a－ what did you call it, Bramly?

A Silencer.

Yeah, that. You see, we're going to the same place to train. That's why you're here. Now will you just chill? He said as he sat in another of the chair scattered around the small table cluttered with books.

That's right, Nina. You aren't here on a whim. I brought you here to take you both to the appropriate trainers.

Nina sat back and sighed. I don't know if you got the memo, but most of the Children got wiped out by U－ that guy. Who else could train us? Even if I accept Victor being here.

"Here to stay. There is no way I'm going back to Earth after seeing this."

Bramly grinned behind his thick beard. No, Nina, not all of the Children died. I was able to hide a small number of them by repressing most of their powers. None can find them, not even Ultimo.

Nina flinched back, but the flash of lightning and the reverberating thunder never came. Don't worry, dear. I am the lord and master of this house. Not even an Ancient may enter without my permission, and that includes his consciousness.

If you that powerful, then why don't you just take on the Ancients yourself? Why rely on－ Charley?

I’m not all powerful. Bramly sat forward and attempted to pat her arm, but she pulled away before he could make contact. Things are not as dire as they may seem. I do not think you have seen the last of them. The Ashe clan is resilient

What do you mean?

Lloyd paled. What are you talking about? Did something happen to Charley?

Nina glared at him. Like you would care, weasel. You don't care about anything but yourself.

He blushed. No, I don't－ that’s not－ you know what, never mind. Should have just kept my mouth shut.

That would be pleasant, she said, Thank you.

Bramly tutted at her. Now, now, Nina. You have both had a rough day. We really should go to meet your masters now. There really isn't any time to lose.

Bramly stood and ushered them from the room and instead of heading out of his house, he walked to a small, spiral staircase and started up them. Come now. My brother isn't the only one who can alter space. Only a few more steps and we will be there.

As he said it, he climbed a few more stairs, and then vanished, almost as if he had turned sideways and disappeared into nothing. Nina almost backed into Victor, who steadied her. Watch it, Sparks.

Don't call me that! He'd called her that all through childhood for her almost blood red hair. Lloyd had said it reminded him of a fire and hadn't stopped until Charley had made him.

Lloyd grinned. Haven't gotten to call you that in years. Now up you go, Sparks. I think he called it a jump point, or something like that. Now get beamed up.

Nina stepped forward and felt a cool mist on her face. As climbed another, her entire body was dampened by the spray of a nearby waterfall.

A pair of gleaming coy, one pitch black with white eyes, and the other the opposite, swam in a circle around each other in the small pond at the base of the waterfall.

Bramly stared down into the depths. No matter how much turmoil is thrown at this balance of light and dark, they still manage to survive together.

Lloyd, who was now standing beside her as she looked down into the pond, yawned loudly. Come on, old man. I didn't come for an Oprah special.

Bramly looked at him and smiled. No? How much longer do you think you can hide behind that attitude, young Silencer?

Crossing his arms across his chest, Lloyd laughed. I'm not hiding from anything. I'm here, aren't I?

Yes, you certainly are. Now what are you going to do? Your Path, and your future, are right around that bend, he said, pointing to a small trail leading away from the waterfall.

Can we just get going? My feet are killing me.

Bramly nodded and walked down the trail, only glancing back at the pond once more with a sad look in his eyes.

A short, balding man looked down at Nina, his arms behind his back. He wore a short apron splattered with paint and there was a smudge of what looked like charcoal across his chin.

"So, this is the Nina Dew, daughter of Braith. His eyes seemed to lighten. You look exactly like her. I guess that would make me your great-uncle."

Nina took a step back, almost into the crowd of adults and the few children that made up the small village. Great-uncle?

Yes. The name's Drall. I'm also an Animator. I can tell just by looking that you have maybe only succeeded in creating one or two familiars. Will you show me it?

Nina nodded and pulled out a small scrap of paper from her pocket and placed it on the ground. Kneeling by it, she touched a corner of the charcoal etching.

Her dog, whom she had taken to calling Rufus, instantly responded and pulled itself off of the ground, growing into a six-foot giant.

A loud murmuring appeared from among the crowd as Drall walked around Rufus, occasionally touching the dog. Rufus responded by trying to lick him, but Nina kept him in check with a thought.

Drall stopped once he'd circled Rufus several times and looked back at her. Well, he isn't powerful－ but I must admit, this is definitely good for your first familiar. And you have very good control over him for just beginning several months ago.

Th－ thank you.

Drall frowned. I wasn't complimenting you. There is much you must learn, and so little time in which to do so. Come, our first lesson starts now. If you will excuse us, Bramly. I'm sure Cara will be more than delighted to have a new pupil.

Victor couldn't believe it. He'd been teleported twice in one day. Once to another world, and then another time to travel halfway across a continent. And now he was being held upside down by a girl half his size!

Are you going to let me down? Come on, this isn't funny.

The girl giggled and looked back at the young woman, who was sporting a small smile as she appeared from the trees without a sound. You were beaten by a girl half your age. How do you expect to accomplish anything when you can't even sneak properly?

Victor rolled his eyes, though it had much less affect from his current position. How am I supposed to do anything when you won't teach me anything?

The woman frowned. All right, Ali, let him down. I suppose it was too much to think he might have even a basic understanding of how his powers work.

The girl released the vine and he fell to the ground, nearly landing on his head in the process. Couldn't you have been a little gentler? I mean, I have my face to worry about.

What's so important about your face? Ali asked, her nose scrunching up. Denny is cuter than you.

That's enough, Ali. I need some time alone with Victor if we're going to get anywhere.

Ali scampered off, nearly flying across the ground with hardly a sound. I can see the talent in you, Victor, Cara said. "In reality, you are much more powerful than Ali